Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising these issues. Deputy Andrews referred to the GRA and the Garda situation. We support community policing and invest heavily in it, but the issues that remain outstanding in respect of the rosters should be resolved through the available industrial relations machinery. It is important that those avenues – the internal mechanisms and the established industrial relations mechanisms – be explored fully.

Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan discussed school transport. What he described was not in the spirit of the school transport system. The spirit is to try to get access for children on buses and get them to school. The idea of using a measuring wheel to identify a route is not acceptable by any yardstick. We need a bit of common sense and to think about the child and the family with a view to sorting out this issue. I will speak to the Minister about this specific case and see where we can take it.

Deputy Ó Murchú mentioned the autism report. Without question, it is a matter of co-ordination and co-operation between all of the agencies. In my view, we need multidisciplinary teams in special schools. The HSE does not agree with me.

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